“Don’t Eat the Free Bread” — Woman Explains Why It’s a Scam Designed to Manipulate Blood Sugar

A TikToker believes American restaurants are engaging in a yeasty conspiracy involving bread baskets before meals at restaurants.

In a viral clip, Sarah Pascarella ( @sasscarella ) highlighted how French restaurants will serve crudite, i.e., raw vegetables before a meal to help people's glucose from spiking, instead of the starchy, flour snacks that are often placed in front of our faces.

She says at the beginning of the clip: "Y'all America is so f--ked for this. OK, so in France you have this thing called crudite, right? It means raw things. They eat it right before a meal. What does this do? Lowers your blood sugar, so that you're not craving a dessert right after your meal," she says at the top of the video.

She then claims that restaurants that serve you free bread first are basically attempting to scam their customers: "But in America, they feed you the bread first, right? You get to the restaurant you're like f--k yeah I'm starving, free bread, let's f--king go. No, don't eat the bread. It's a f--king scam."

Sarah explains why: "You're going to eat the bread, boom, glucose levels are gonna skyrocket. You're going to be up here, you're feeling good, you're feeling hot, then all of a sudden, throughout your meal ..." she then takes her hand, which she shot up into the air in order to illustrate how one's glucose levels soar, and bring it down to illustrate the "crash" diners are inevitably going to face.

This glucose rollercoaster is all initiated by consuming bread right when you sit down at a restaurant. Sarah states, "You're going to crash again, and then you're down here because bread was the first thing that you ate. It was the first thing that entered your bloodstream and made your glucose levels go like this," she then directs her hand again up into the air, like Ultraman.

The TikToker suggests that consuming raw, fibrous vegetables first and then protein is probably the best course of action one should take before ingesting a bread or anything that'll instantly spike your glucose levels, but many people chow down on bread first.

This then creates a situation where you, as a customer are experiencing a dip in glucose levels by the time the end of your meal approaches:

"Before your protein, before all your other vegetables, you ate bread. Do not eat the bread. Because then, after your meal, what time is it? Oh, the waiter's going to come around she's going to be like can I get you anything else? Like a dessert?"

"You're like oh yes I've been wanting some dessert because you're feeling like s--t and what do you need to do to keep this dopamine going? Sugar, you need sugar in your bloodstream. So you're going to buy the sugar. It's a f--king scam," she says, slapping her face with her hand as she mock cries into the camera.

"It's a f--king scam you guys because France cares about their people and their health of their people and the well being of their people, they're going to feed you the raw vegetables first because they're like here, this will keep you from not f--king craving sugar all the time," she says.

"But in America they're like how can we make money off this? Actually let's give them bread first, you little f--king peasants. Oh my," she says, slapping her hand to her forehead again before the video ultimately closes out.

One TikToker in the comments section pointed out the French restaurants do offer free fresh bread immediately to customers as well. "French person here, yes eating crudités or fresh salad as a starter is part of the usual course of a French meal. BUT there's FREE bread on the French table almost immediately," they wrote.

The French resident continued: "In most restaurants and households. It's common to snack on bread and olive oil (south) or butter (north) with or before your crudités. And at large French people love good desserts. ...The main differences in France are SMALLER size portions, BETTER quality food (less GMO and pesticides), a culture based on enjoyment of good food rather than rushing and fast food."

She capped off her message by stating that depicting French restaurants and people as being anti-bread-first is actually a misrepresentation of French cuisine: "So yes watch your blood sugar levels and eating fresh salad first is good for you, but don't use the French as an example for not eating bread before a meal because we do it a LOT."

There also folks who've posted to Trip Advisor who've mentioned that bread in many French restaurants is served prior to a meal and that it's also meant to be used as an accompaniment to the food folks order later on.

There are other nutritional experts who have urged diners to avoid consuming bread at the start of their meal, as evinced in this Yahoo! Life article : "The main reason we shouldn’t be reaching for the bread basket before dinner is because of its starchy nature. When our stomachs are empty, starchy food such as bread can cause a significant glucose spike and majorly affect our body’s process of digesting not only the bread itself but our meal afterward."